The rumor was appalling to Burton. Not because it wasn’t true. And not because it put him in a precarious situation.

It was disturbing because it illustrated just how much Burton and his No. 31 team have struggled the past two years.

A year after finishing 20th in points, Burton finished 19th in 2012, with just two top-five and six top-10 finishes.

“When you run the way that we ran, then you should be in the rumors,” Burton said. “It’s part of being in this sport. … If you’ve got the ball in your hands and you’re not scoring touchdowns, guess what, there’s going to be rumors.

“It’s not a fun part of it, but it is part of it.”

For the record, Burton will return to RCR in 2013. And he’s hoping for significant improvement after a second straight disappointing year.

Highlight: That Burton had two of his best races at Daytona was evidence that he can still get it done behind the wheel. He finished fifth in the season-opening Daytona 500, and then finished second to Tony Stewart at Daytona in July for his best finish of the season.

Low point: If the two races at Daytona were the highlights, the races right after Daytona were the low points. After leading 24 laps and finishing fifth in the Daytona 500, Burton blew an engine and finished 33rd the following week at Phoenix. After finishing second at Daytona in July, he finished 21st or worse in his next four races, showing the kind of inconsistency his team fought all year.

Defining moment: Aside from the rumors, there was another embarrassing moment for Burton. In the next-to-last race of the season, he accidentally got into Danica Patrick and wrecked her and had to call her to apologize a few days later. That he was racing Patrick near the rear of the field was one thing, but such incidents typically don’t happen to the sport’s best drivers.

Outlook for 2013: Burton has to hope that all of RCR gets better in 2013, because the whole organization struggled last year. Kevin Harvick won just won race and was the only RCR driver to make the Chase.

Burton will be reunited with former crew chief Luke Lambert and hopes that helps his team improve enough to get him back to victory lane and back into the Chase—or at least back in the right conversations.

“When you’re in your 20th year and people are talking about you being replaced, it is not the position you want to be in,” Burton said.

“When you’ve put in as much as I’ve put into it and it means as much as it means to me, you want everybody saying, ‘That’s a driving son of a (gun).’ ”